Tag Archives: Holiday Marketing

Thanksgiving, Hanukah, Christmas, New Year’s—for most of us, these and perhaps a few others are the main holidays to focus on at year’s end. If you’re a business owner, though—and an ecommerce merchant in particular—then there’s one other day you should mark on your calendar: Cyber Monday. The Monday following Thanksgiving is one of the biggest shopping days of the year, a day on which many of your regular customers and clients are going to be in a holiday shopping state of mind. You ignore this day at your own detriment; hosting some Cyber Monday specials and promotions is a great way to seize some of this traffic and generate some real business.

But there’s not that much time until Cyber Monday gets here—so if you haven’t planned your promotions, the time to do so is now!

Allow us to offer a few pointers.

Getting Ready for Cyber Monday

You need to start building buzz now. Trust us: Your audience is already thinking about the holiday season, and many brick and mortar stores have had their holiday promotions and displays running for several weeks already. You’ve got to compete with that, so set the details of your Cyber Monday promotions and start hyping them on social media and on your website soon.

Make sure customers can browse your features products/services now. Long before Cyber Monday arrives, many shoppers will be doing online research to scout out the best deals. Whatever items you are going to promote, make sure your website showcases them well, including a note about any Cyber Monday discounts or specials.

Begin the process of creating content. You’ll want to promote your Cyber Monday offerings with images, ads, blog posts, and more—and you don’t want to have to create all of that content at the very last minute. Start compiling some of it today.

Be meticulous and thoughtful in creating ad copy. On Cyber Monday (and really for the entire holiday season), your audience is going to be inundated with sales copy. Yours must stand out. Brainstorm email marketing subject lines, blog headings, and effective tweets now. Engage a writing team, like Grammar Chic, to help make your words memorable.

Tap into your existing customer base. Cyber Monday can be a good season for new customer acquisition, but it can frankly be an even better time to re-engage with previous customers. Make sure your Cyber Monday marketing efforts include some emails targeted to the folks who are already on your mailing list.

It won’t be long before the big day is here—so are you prepared? If not, get with Grammar Chic today to find out how we can help you. Reach out at 803-831-7444 or www.grammarchic.net.

We’re still a few days away from celebrating Halloween, but if you’ve been out shopping lately then you’ve probably noticed plenty of Christmas décor already on display. Big-box stores and retail pharmacies know full well that, for many Americans, the holiday season has more or less begun—and to really make the most of it, marketers need to start getting ready now.

And that includes you. Maybe you don’t have a brick-and-mortar store where you can erect a giant holiday display, but at the very least you can do some e-mail marketing—getting ready to connect with subscribers and previous customers and remind them of your brand in the precious weeks leading up to Christmas.

Remember: During this season of the year, many consumers are very much in a “buying mode.” They’re looking for great products, offers, and deals. And your e-mail marketing efforts can help connect the dots, coaxing customers to your business as they look to spend a few holiday bucks.

You may not be ready to launch a full-scale holiday marketing blitz quite yet, and that’s fine. It may still be a bit early for that, but it’s not too early to start planning and brainstorming. Some tips for doing so:

Think about how your product/offer might change. Remember that during the holiday season, a lot of people are looking for great gift ideas. If you own a jewelry store or a toy store then you’re probably in good shape, but many brands will need to shift their thinking from direct products to gift cards or other gift-oriented ideas.

Play into sales and specials. The holiday shopping season presents plenty of great opportunities to base your e-mail campaign around sales and promotions. For example: Why not take full advantage of Cyber Monday?

Do some spying. Make sure you keep tabs on what your competitors are doing. If you notice them announcing free shipping or other special holiday discounts, you may have to make similar offers just to keep pace.

Today, we want to highlight a few seasonal trends that could make a world of difference for your company and its marketing, if you seize them and use them to your advantage.

Seasonal Shopping Spree

We’ll start with an obvious point: During the month of December, an awful lot of people are going to be shopping. They’re going to be shopping more than usual. They’re going to be shopping around the clock.

That’s clearly a good thing for your small business—but only if you can actually tap into that uptick in shopping.

More than ever before, you’ve got to make it enticing for people who are shopping—people who are in a buying state of mind—to visit your store or your website. Launch a promotion, and publicize it on social media and on your blog. BOGOs, holiday discounts, free shipping—whatever you can offer to lure in shoppers.

Getting Mobile

More shoppers means more people on the go—and that means more people accessing your company website and social media via their smartphones rather than their laptops and desktops.

Does your small business website function well on mobile devices? And are your holiday promotions clearly displayed, without customers needing to do too much iPhone scrolling?

If you’re not making a concentrated effort to capture the attention of mobile shoppers—to make the shopping experience as easy as possible for them—then you’re going to end up with a lot of frustrated holiday consumers who navigate away from your website almost immediately. You could lose those leads forever.

Social Shopping

Statistics report that holiday shoppers get insights and recommendations from social media more than they do the people they’re shopping with.

In other words: The average lady, out shopping for gifts, will trust Twitter recommendations over the advice of her own girlfriends.

If ever there was a time to be serious about content marketing and social sharing, this is it. Offer product pictures, reviews, recommendations, shopping guides—anything you can to educate and inform your potential customers and clients.

The Grammar Chic team is happy to assist with that; to launch your own holiday-ready social media blitz, contact our team right away: www.grammarchic.net, or 803-831-7444.

Business owners, have you ever found yourself thinking: I should really send out a marketing e-mail to all the people on my e-mail list—but is now the best time?

When it comes to e-mail marketing, timing is certainly an important concern—but we’re here to tell you: The time to get busy with e-mail marketing is now.

The holiday season is fast approaching. People are shopping. They’re working to meet their year-end goals. They’re spending money. Their inboxes are becoming full with special offers, promotions, and ads—and you definitely want to have your brand right there in the mix.

How can small businesses make the most of their e-mail marketing efforts over the holiday season? Read on for some tips from the Grammar Chic, Inc. team.

Grab your readers with a compelling headline! And keep experimenting with different subject lines right up until the end of the season. Divide your e-mail list into two or three groups, and send each group an e-mail with a different subject line. If one works resoundingly well, it’s worth reusing with the other groups; you might also keep it in mind as a template for future e-mails.

Remember, though, not to use spammy words in your subject lines! Our thoughts on typical spam words can be found in this post. Note that holiday marketing clichés—Cyber Monday or Black Friday sales, for instance—will also get your messages tossed in with the spam. Avoid using those terms in your subject line.

Make your e-mails top-heavy. Busy shoppers, receiving your e-mail on their iPhone or Blackberry, aren’t going to have the time or the patience to read 500 words of copy. Include the most significant information right there in the subject line and in the first two or three lines of text. The less scrolling people have to do to get to the point of your e-mail, the better.

As ever, content is king. The best e-mails will have some eye-catching imagery—perhaps holiday-themed—paired with some brief but value-adding content. Make note of holiday promos and sales, and perhaps link to just a couple of your company blogs, as well.

Don’t forget your call to action! It’s always essential, and at the holidays more than ever.

E-mail marketing should really be a year-round pursuit, of course, but there’s no time like the present to jump in or to redouble your efforts. To learn more, contact our team today at www.grammarchic.net or 803-831-7444.

Grammar Chic, Inc. is a full-service content writing company that publishes The Red Ink, a collection of informative articles pertaining to professional editing and writing services, writing and editing techniques, and brand management tactics. For more information about Grammar Chic, Inc. and the services that it offers visit www.grammarchic.net.